We have been promised that the long awaited 'judgment' of the abandoned Northern Region Soccer League Division One match between Karoi United and Scottland will be delivered tomorrow.
After all the 12 weeks of waiting, we will soon find out what the Northern Region leadership have been cooking for us although from the look of things the decision looks predictable.
We say what they have been cooking because we are convinced that what will come out of the judgment is not from a true reflection of what exactly transpired at Karoi Stadium, but from a cooked narrative of events.
In fact, the delay in dealing with the matter, the funny if not laughable reports of both the referee and the match commissioner, all point to a choreographed story and ultimately to a final award of the game to Scottland.
Was it a coincidence that the referee and match commissioner's reports looked similar as if they were written by one person? Or that they were in an exam room where one could peep and copy the answers of the other ?
Surely, a disciplinary committee of repute should have questioned the truthfulness of the contents of the referee and the match commissioner's reports before making a determination basing on false pretences.
The question is: How surely can a serious disciplinary committee with a reputation to protect go ahead to make a judgement using such information?
According to the rules, the matter should have been heard and settled 14 days after the incident but that was also not done for reasons still yet to be explained with all factors pointing to a conspiracy.
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With the NRSL revealing that Karoi United were found guilty of causing the abandonment of the match, what the football family should expect is to be predictably told that the match has been awarded to Scottland and unashamedly on a 3-0 verdict.
We might be wrong but this is exactly what our football has become, a game where ethics and principles have been thrown into the bin and integrity lost for the sake of two pieces of silver.
What is even disturbing is that everyone seems to have been 'bought' from most in our own field to the ordinary football fan via the football leaders and the opposition team — it's all hell.
Taking into consideration the events of the day in question, logic dictates that the best decision would have been a share of the points at 1-1 with Karoi United getting sanctioned for not proving adequate security.
Logic, though, is a preserve of the few and does not exist in our football circles where even cries and open acts of match fixing are ignored unless the accused is Chinhoyi Stars, Banket United, DZ Royals, Trojan Stars, Zambezi C&G or any other team without a bank account.
We applaud other things that Scottland FC and its owner Scott Sakupwanya have done. They have given our players a life deserving of a footballer by paying good salaries and huge bonuses.
They have added excitement to our football through their colourful singings and drum-beating supporters who have followed their team all over the places.
Sakupwanya has gone further by kit-sponsoring our Warriors and also making sure that 12 handpicked football fans also travel to support the Warriors in their remaining Afcon 2025 matches against Kenya and Cameroon.
That, however, should not cloud our eyes to the fact that this is the same Scott and his Scottland team who throughout the year have been accused of buying off opponents to get points and goals for promotion into the Premiership.
We should also not be blurred to forget that this is the same Scott who has also been accused of fuelling corruption within the referees sector by offering huge sums to the officials to swing matches in favour of this new entrant into the Northern Region Division One.
One sober minded football analyst jokingly concluded that offering bribes to the opposition for points — if it was true — was admission enough that their team was not strong enough to be the best in Division One.
Surely, we can all sing for our supper but the truth is that Scottland do not deserve that promotion into the Premiership but MWOS did but sadly MWOS were too professional to survive in our game of thorns.
Tomorrow's "reserved judgment," will just be another episode in Zimbabwe football's version of the comedy Allo Allo as Wieslaw Grabowski would put it.
Till then, enjoy your football comedy.
*For your views, comments, and suggestions mkariati@gmail.com or WhatsApp on 071 0774 596.
